Any time you play with evolution there's a potential for it to backfire.
Respiratory viruses such as rhinovirus, influenza, and coronavirus are NOTORIOUS for rapid mutation, but also generally have a miniscule impact on healthy young and and middle age people. Occasionally you get a strain like spanish flu, and those tend to extinguish themselves for being suboptimal compared to less devastating strains.
Frankly, I just don't see the value in mounting a response to respiratory viruses in general. I think for the energy and wealth we spend every year trying to deal with flu, we could be doing other things and only a few more old and immunocompromised would die every year from it.
The second we knew that 19 wasn't another spanish flu, we should have stopped trying to combat it and just made sure that surge capacity was available. Which we did and ultimately didn't use.
You're thinking on too small of a scale. I'm talking about the ecosystem of viruses in circulation.
If you don't understand how immunization puts evolutionary pressure on viruses then frankly we can't have a conversation because you don't have the foundational understanding to follow what I'm saying.
We certainly shouldn't use them as often as we do.
As I see it, doses of antibiotics should be as tightly controlled as radiotherapy. Nobody should be ALLOWED to take antibiotics home. Nobody should be trusted with them outside of a controlled environment where dosage plans are strictly enforced.
Any time you play with evolution there's a potential for it to backfire.
Respiratory viruses such as rhinovirus, influenza, and coronavirus are NOTORIOUS for rapid mutation, but also generally have a miniscule impact on healthy young and and middle age people. Occasionally you get a strain like spanish flu, and those tend to extinguish themselves for being suboptimal compared to less devastating strains.
Frankly, I just don't see the value in mounting a response to respiratory viruses in general. I think for the energy and wealth we spend every year trying to deal with flu, we could be doing other things and only a few more old and immunocompromised would die every year from it.
The second we knew that 19 wasn't another spanish flu, we should have stopped trying to combat it and just made sure that surge capacity was available. Which we did and ultimately didn't use.
You're thinking on too small of a scale. I'm talking about the ecosystem of viruses in circulation.
If you don't understand how immunization puts evolutionary pressure on viruses then frankly we can't have a conversation because you don't have the foundational understanding to follow what I'm saying.
We certainly shouldn't use them as often as we do.
As I see it, doses of antibiotics should be as tightly controlled as radiotherapy. Nobody should be ALLOWED to take antibiotics home. Nobody should be trusted with them outside of a controlled environment where dosage plans are strictly enforced.